So basically DPS classes are screwed across the board from the 5% damage nerf and the +125 ferocity doesn't matter make up for that.
Moreover chrono tanks got screwed by the sigil of concentration nerf. If you recently made a chrono tank you just lost a ton of gold.
Are we even going to be able to clear some of these raids?
What is Anet thinking?
I wouldn't be surprised if some players quit the game over this poor decision making. So much time and money goes into raiding and some of that you'll never get back now.

On a complementary note to what the other people said, they are massively changing every rune and sigil in the game and there might be new combinations that more than make up for the loss of DPS in most cases. Also the loss is trivial and most groups are already well over the minimum DPS on every single boss. Your above-average Dhuum run finishes well around 2:25 and it's not uncommon to finish Qadim with several minutes remaining on the timer, etc.

Same goes for sigil of concentration that was unnecessarily OP with 2 chronos already over-buffing the entire squad. I didn't even use it myself for example and no one ever noticed. I might buy one now since it'll be cheaper but there might be even better options lying around, specially as far as runes are concerned, they might change a lot of things. I'm personally excited for this.

Still really sucks for anyone who recently got into chrono tanking. If they're going to make this big of change. Some kind of compensation should be provided imo. My guildmate just lost a ton of gold because she made it a few days ago.

Torn on the Sigil of Concentration change, equipping more concentration gear feels bad but the changes to Scholar narrow the gap between <90% and >90% greatly. The loss of 5% damage will affect conditions the most... which are are more less or neglectable. On the other side, 125 ferocity is no joke and having said bonus up at all times is very nice actually. (Chip damage is a thing)

Still really sucks for anyone who recently got into chrono tanking. If they're going to make this big of change. Some kind of compensation should be provided imo. My guildmate just lost a ton of gold because she made it a few days ago.

It's a game and she didn't lose real money as long as she didn't convert money into gold (a thing veteran players shouldn't even think about).

It's a game and everybody needs to be aware that changes are possible - every fricking (Tues)day.

Ton of gold? Seriously, how many sigils were bought by her? Usually if you start to tank/play chrono you would buy maybe 2? Since the sigil is still worth some gold she didn't lose a "ton". Also, you'll make at least 50g per full clear a week - and that's only raiding. She or you should really get over it, lol.

Torn on the Sigil of Concentration change, equipping more concentration gear feels bad but the changes to Scholar narrow the gap between <90% and >90% greatly. The loss of 5% damage will affect conditions the most... which are are more less or neglectable. On the other side, 125 ferocity is no joke and having said bonus up at all times is very nice actually. (Chip damage is a thing)

I always thought concentration sigil was stupid, I've never ran one, always choosing to use force/accuracy with more boon gear on an off-tank build, and water/transference on a healing chrono build.

@MisterDapper.5984 said:
Still really sucks for anyone who recently got into chrono tanking. If they're going to make this big of change. Some kind of compensation should be provided imo. My guildmate just lost a ton of gold because she made it a few days ago.

Thats the life of strictly chasing the meta. No they shouldn't be refunded. Just 2 weeks ago we had this reddit thread:

Your guild mate didn't have to jump into raiding by making a super expensive build. Many raiders start raiding with cheap builds to build up the resources to easily gear up the more expensive stuff. They could have made a cheap build, they chose not to.

Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

Could tell you how many Sigils of Concentraton I own and use over many, many characters. Some of which are META and some are certainly not but this in itself already shows how broken that sigil is. And that always made it obvious that they might eventually do something about it. Buying expensive items always comes at a risk in this game. We have had many instances of ArenaNet introducing new ways of acquiring rare stuff or reintroducing certain expensive items later on. Sucks to be your friend but it is hardly any particularly big "loss".

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. ~ Robert Heinlein

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while below the HP threshold.

If it rly is 8 then it id 13.4% because those 5'percent increse the damage from fereocity too

So basically DPS classes are screwed across the board from the 5% damage nerf and the +125 ferocity doesn't matter make up for that.

Have you done the math to come to that conclusion?

It's a nerf if you are above ~375 ferocity and a buff below with 100% scholar uptime. So it's actually a buff for Holo for example since he has only one weak ferocity trait and loses scholar during overheat.
100% scholar uptime wasn't achievable on every fight anyways so it should be a buff on most bosses.
My math could also be completely off, feel free to correct me.

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

It's not that simple. You have to look at the increase you gain over your current critical damage to get damage gained by that ferocity, different for each build.
Then you have to multiply the values instead of adding them since the 5% damage increases the critical damage aswell.

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

Yea. The change to soc will not change meta (chrono will be even more matadory because this kills quickness firebrand). Just you would take reqular gear for chaos. What does this do is it removes dps (non chaos) chrono options and also makes the rotation mire boring

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

It's not that simple. You have to look at the increase you gain over your current critical damage to get damage gained by that ferocity, different for each build.
Then you have to multiply the values instead of adding them since the 5% damage increases the critical damage aswell.

Woops ! You and reikken.4961 are both right, I totally ommitted it's crit dmg. Result does seems to be lower(nerf), by 1.5%-ish(?). Assuming 100% crit chance and with HP above 90% entire time...

@Nephalem.8921 said:
Most builds are Soulbeast and Weaver if my math isn't completely off.
Its 2750/2625 * 1.05 = 1.1
Means threshold is 1875 with the excluded 50% base ciritcal damage. How did you get your scholar uptime values? Am i missing something?

Probably wasnt clear on that, but the values are compared to the new scholar rune.
Basically if you dont have any food/runes/traits that give you ferocity the break even point is 75% uptime. If you do the Math with several classes and add the ferocity they get from traits food and stuff like that the break even point goes down to 65%. Basically if your group sucks with healing or you are facetanking every mechanic, you are still getting buffed with the new rune. The change rewards bad gameplay while (slightly) punishing good groups.
I was only adding to your math since you did it under the assumption of 100% scholar uptime.

@Nephalem.8921 said:
Most builds are Soulbeast and Weaver if my math isn't completely off.
Its 2750/2625 * 1.05 = 1.1
Means threshold is 1875 with the excluded 50% base ciritcal damage. How did you get your scholar uptime values? Am i missing something?

Probably wasnt clear on that, but the values are compared to the new scholar rune.
Basically if you dont have any food/runes/traits that give you ferocity the break even point is 75% uptime. If you do the Math with several classes and add the ferocity they get from traits food and stuff like that the break even point goes down to 65%. Basically if your group sucks with healing or you are facetanking every mechanic, you are still getting buffed with the new rune. The change rewards bad gameplay while (slightly) punishing good groups.
I was only adding to your math since you did it under the assumption of 100% scholar uptime.

I get it now. Forgot something unnecessary like base damage. Well yeah even the worst pug groups had scholar uptimes above 80% so its just a nerf to all power builds and especially high ferocity builds like fresh air weaver.
But who knows. Maybe they will destroy sigil of force and change it to ferocity aswell.

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

It's not that simple. You have to look at the increase you gain over your current critical damage to get damage gained by that ferocity, different for each build.
Then you have to multiply the values instead of adding them since the 5% damage increases the critical damage aswell.

if you're only doing a rough estimation, the number crunching that came up with a friend, is take the % critical damage gain, and divide by 2 (assuming 100% crit chance). It's not exact, but it gives a decent estimate that doesn't require number crunching for every build.
Now considering a dev suggested 125 fero was 3-4% dmg, depending on situation - it seems anet has come to a similar conclusion. ( I'll link the comment when i find it again)

So new scholar is going to give ~ 9% > 90%hp, and ~4% below 90% hp, as opposed to 10% & 0%. So for benchmarks/golem tests - it's a nerf. However in most* "real"** situations it's likely to end up being a buff.

*most situations where dps is going to make an ounce of difference
** as real as video games get.

@Eramonster.2718 said:
Scholar damage boost is on power (condi was never in the equation, unless stated like Sigil of Bursting).

New scholar rune : +125 ferocity = 8% (8.33% to be exact), plus additional 5% while HP above 90%. (Previously 10% dmg while HP above 90%). 13% in total sounds like a buff to me, and more viable too since players still retains 8% while HP below the threshold.

It's not that simple. You have to look at the increase you gain over your current critical damage to get damage gained by that ferocity, different for each build.
Then you have to multiply the values instead of adding them since the 5% damage increases the critical damage aswell.

if you're only doing a rough estimation, the number crunching that came up with a friend, is take the % critical damage gain, and divide by 2 (assuming 100% crit chance). It's not exact, but it gives a decent estimate that doesn't require number crunching for every build.
Now considering a dev suggested 125 fero was 3-4% dmg, depending on situation - it seems anet has come to a similar conclusion. ( I'll link the comment when i find it again)

So new scholar is going to give ~ 9% > 90%hp, and ~4% below 90% hp, as opposed to 10% & 0%. So for benchmarks/golem tests - it's a nerf. However in most* "real"** situations it's likely to end up being a buff.

*most situations where dps is going to make an ounce of difference
** as real as video games get.

Yes i did that and its a massive nerf in almost all situations. Both combined are just 8.4% for Holo with almost no ferocity bonus from traits. Scholar uptime above 90% was normal on most bosses. Sometimes even 100%.

Its just a 7.9% damage increase for fresh air weaver while attuned to air. Its just a straight rune nerf.

Firebrand could provide more then 100% quickness anyway. Its just a matter of taking conc food over burn duration (at least thats what I did) and you should be fine and thats assuming you're a Quickness FB and not a support FB which has ~74% quickness with Harriers without food or buffs.

@Nephalem.8921 said:
I get it now. Forgot something unnecessary like base damage. Well yeah even the worst pug groups had scholar uptimes above 80% so its just a nerf to all power builds and especially high ferocity builds like fresh air weaver.
But who knows. Maybe they will destroy sigil of force and change it to ferocity aswell.

Nah, gotta bring it in line with Concentration and Malice and buff it to 10%. /s

@Nephalem.8921 said:
I get it now. Forgot something unnecessary like base damage. Well yeah even the worst pug groups had scholar uptimes above 80% so its just a nerf to all power builds and especially high ferocity builds like fresh air weaver.
But who knows. Maybe they will destroy sigil of force and change it to ferocity aswell.

Nah, gotta bring it in line with Concentration and Malice and buff it to 10%. /s

5% damage is basically 150 power in full dps gear and roughly 200 power in raid buffs. That's pretty much on par with the malice sigil already. Perhaps they'll make it a 4% boost to keep things aligned.

What this mostly does is actually indirectly buff chrono by heavily nerfing the only things that are sort of competitive with it, offensive alacrity renegade and quickness firebrand builds. These builds use sigil of concentration to inflate their boon duration while still being able to run mostly offensive gear everywhere else. Now they can't won't be able to get nearly as much boon duration without going heavily into gear with concentration stats, at which point they lose their superior personal dps which is the only thing they have going for them over chrono. GG anet, but we will see.

@Knox.8962 said:
5% damage is basically 150 power in full dps gear and roughly 200 power in raid buffs. That's pretty much on par with the malice sigil already. Perhaps they'll make it a 4% >boost to keep things aligned.

Idk. if you missed the /s or just wanted to explain thing, but yeah. Buffing Force Sigil would be ridiculous.

@ArthurDent.9538 said:
What this mostly does is actually indirectly buff chrono by heavily nerfing the only things that are sort of competitive with it, offensive alacrity renegade and quickness firebrand builds. These builds use sigil of concentration to inflate their boon duration while still being able to run mostly offensive gear everywhere else. Now they can't won't be able to get nearly as much boon duration without going heavily into gear with concentration stats, at which point they lose their superior personal dps which is the only thing they have going for them over chrono. GG anet, but we will see.

We could have a herald camping dragon stance and facet of nature to replace it

The Cocentration sigil "nerf" certainly affected some specs more than others but it hardly killed Firebrands or Renegades. The former doesn't require above 80% boon duration to provide perma Quickness (even if that may be a little less forgiving) while the latter is able to gear heavily into Harrier or Giver in combination with Water runes to cover the lost duration.

My actual gripe with these changes is the even further reduced variety in useful supportive rune sets or sigils. Monk is all there is with very few exception. The buff pretty much covers for the Healing Power you lost on some of the min-maxed Druid builds while being a straight up 10% buff to those who already ran a full Harrier set to begin with while Altruism runes are pretty much dead having lost their Fury.
Concentration sigil is more of a must-have than ever now as most Runes had their Boon Duration nerfed and even more so the removal of supposedly unreliable "on swap" trigger of said sigil which kept many from using them. They simply continues to be too efficient as far as min-maxing boons in combination with healing is concerned. 10% Boon Duration equals 150 Concentration stats which aren't easy to min-max as they don't come as the main stat on any gear as well as the fact that you lose out on 10%+-17% Outgoing Healing each if you replace any part of the Delicious Rice Ball + Bountiful Maintenance Oil combo.

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. ~ Robert Heinlein